Witcher 3 - 50 Hours of Playing Time or More?

March 2nd, 2013, 02:35

The German Gamestar site has more info on The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. In this newsbit they state that the game has 50 hours of playing time. There are a total of 36 instances of the game world that will materialize or not depending on your choices with a total of 3 different endings. Also, depending on the instances that materialize in your game a selection of characters from previous Witcher games will be available.
Geralt can hunt animals and use their skins. Which animals are available depends amongst others on the day and night cycle.
The cities should have more people in them and they are watching your more closely. If they find you stealing from them the city guards will show up.
In this article on the same site it is stated that the side-quest alone will be 100 hours of playing time, which doesn't match the earlier mentioned 50 hours, but I guess both could still be true.More information.

Originally Posted by JDR13
How many times are you going to repeat the same thing? Releasing information about aspects that people are curious about doesn't equal hype.

Yes it is when there is an article on every site with new videos and screens for a game that wont be out for at least another 1-2 years. This is called marketing JDR. There pushing the game so hard you won't forget about it.

Originally Posted by Couchpotato
Yes it is when there is an article on every site with new videos and screens for a game that wont be out for at least another 1-2 years. This is called marketing JDR. There pushing the game so hard you won't forget about it.

In other words, the exact same thing that's done for every major game release. Stop acting like this is somehow different.

I agree, hype is simply another part of a games marketing plan, why would the Witcher be any different? I am a little dissapointed that Witcha 3 is expected to be a 50 hour rpg though. I read somewhere that it's going to be 20% larger than Skyrim, so 50 hours just doesn't seem right. It's just too early to to take anything as fact.

Originally Posted by spiraling69
I agree, hype is simply another part of a games marketing plan, why would the Witcher be any different? I am a little dissapointed that Witcha 3 is expected to be a 50 hour rpg though. I read somewhere that it's going to be 20% larger than Skyrim, so 50 hours just doesn't seem right. It's just too early to to take anything as fact.

For an open world sandbox RPG that number is obviously the "follow the main quest" number. Side quests and exploring may probably offer additional playtime to those interested.

This is interesting. Developpers were dragged to reduce to an average of 30 hours the time required to complete the main quest.
For example, Skyrim main quest is 25~30 hours long.
This in order to avoid alienating customers who want their games to be short.

CD P. distinguish themselves by shooting for around twice the accepted minimal length of a game. Once again, they have taken a decision that goes against the established standards of consumption.
We'll see how it works out for them. But I wont be surprised if players show up to state that the game is too long to complete.

For the rest, considering that all these time lengths are minimal time required to complete a game, it is obvious that TW3 will give more than 50 hours of playtime. For those who want to spend more of course.

The others, those who want to go through the game as fast as possible, will have to spend around 50 hours. Large increase.

I think I had close to 80 hours in the original Witcher, but substantially less in the sequel.

My biggest concern is the direction that the game play is going to take. I loved the first game, but was very lukewarm on the second when they made combat much more action oriented. I also missed the chained attacks from the original, so would like to see those make a comeback.

Originally Posted by Crilloan
I don't want another Skyrim, pretty please!
But that seems to be the norm that all developers market or do PR.

C

Huh? The only thing that has tried to be another TES so far is Two Worlds, and maybe Gothic 3. It's hardly "the norm". I respect your concerns regarding the direction they are taking, just wanted to comment on that specific bit.

Originally Posted by GhanBuriGhan
Huh? The only thing that has tried to be another TES so far is Two Worlds, and maybe Gothic 3. It's hardly "the norm". I respect your concerns regarding the direction they are taking, just wanted to comment on that specific bit.

I was not very focused…

But since Skyrim made such a success, my point (and maybe not a very sharp point at that…) is that a lot of game developers and publishers seems to use Skyrim as a magic key word. Stated or between the lines as in "open world" "sandbox" etc.

What I found CDPR did good in the first witcher game were characters and CnC.
Im afraid that if they try to emulate more of the open world aspect they might not have the resources to do what I feel is the core part of their games justice.

My fears, that arise whenever game lengths and openness is up to discussion is that we will loose quality in the presented content.
People have different tastes though so what is best is up to personal preference.

An allegory:
I prefer a single glass of Lagavullin compared to a bottle of Grants :-)

That is a very valid concern, I share it, to be honest. On the other hand, I like open world sandbox games too, and therefore I am intrigued that a different developer is trying their hand at one.
Also I think the Gothic series has already shown that strong characters and narrative focus is not impossible to combine with an open world approach.
So yeah, I am worried as well, on the other hand very curious how it will turn out.

Originally Posted by Dajjer
Hours, shmowers, I put in over 300 in skyrim and never even finished the game. But my character is poised to when I get back into it.

All I want to know is are there going to be any QTEs? Those things quickly took me out of Witcher 2 and I never finished it.

I was so mad about the QTEs in W2 that I google searched if they had updated the game to see if it was possible to disable the QTEs out. ( I periodically check to see if the developers added the feature).

And low and behold I find a link that came out just 10 hours ago that says NO QTEs in Witcher 3. yipeeeeeeeeeeee